DESCRIPTION: (From the applicant's abstract) "Infection with human papillovamirus (HPV) type l6 is strongly associated with the development of cervical and other ano-genital carcinomas. In more than 90 percent of cervical carcinomas HPV DNA can be detected. In ano-genital carcinoma biopsies, the most consistently retained and expressed HPV genes are two early viral oncogenes, E6 and E7. We intend to develop a vaccine that will induce CTL responses to ano-genital carcinomas expressing the HPV l6 E6 and E7 antigen. A novel vaccine consisting of soluble HPV l6 E7 proteins in a proprietary adjuvant formulation (AF) will be investigated for its ability to induce E7 specific CTL in mice. Typically, CTLs are induced specifically against intracellularly synthesized antigens presented as peptides by MHC class I molecules on the cell surface. Exogenous soluble antigens, in general, do not induce specific CTL responses. Our noninfectious, chemically-defined formulation, AF, in combination with soluble antigens such as ovalbumin and HIV gp120 is a potent inducer of CD8+, class I- restricted, antigen specific CTLs. In the proposed studies, the use of soluble recombinant HPV 16 E7 antigen in AF as an immunogen to induce CTL responses will be examined. In addition, the protective activity of the E7/AF vaccine in in vivo tumor model studies will be investigated."